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Title: Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Frog-Prince
Date of first publication: 1930
Author: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Author: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Illustrator: Noel Pocock (1880-1955)
Date first posted: February 19 2013
Date last updated: February 19 2013
Faded Page eBook #20130217
This ebook was produced by: David Edwards, Delphine Lettau
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
(This file was produced from images generously made available by
The Internet Archive/American Libraries).
The Frog-Prince
One fine evening a young princess went into a wood, and sat down by the
side of a cool spring of water. She had a golden ball in her hand, which
was her favourite play-thing, and she amused herself with tossing it
into the air and catching it again as it fell. After a time she threw
it up so high that when she stretched out her hand to catch it, the ball
bounded away and rolled along upon the ground, till at last it fell into
the spring. The princess looked into the spring after her ball; but it
was very deep, so deep that she could not see the bottom of it. Then she
began to lament her loss, and said, "Alas! if I could only get my ball
again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that
I have in the world." Whilst she was speaking a frog put its head out
of the water, and said, "Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?" "Alas!"
said she, "what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has
fallen into the spring." The frog said, "I want not your pearls and
jewels and fine clothes; but if you will love me and let me live with
you, and eat from your little golden plate, and sleep upon your little
bed, I will bring you your ball again." "What nonsense," thought the
princess, "this silly frog is talking! He can never get out of the well:
however, he may be able to get my ball for me; and therefore I will
promise him what he asks." So she said to the frog, "Well, if you will
bring me my ball, I promise to do all you require." Then the frog put
his head down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while
he came up again with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the ground.
As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick it up, and
was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again, that she never thought
of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could. The frog called
after her, "Stay, princess, and take me with you as you promised;" but
she did not stop to hear a word.
The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a
strange noise, tap-tap, as if somebody was coming up the marble-staircase;
and soon afterwards something knocked gently at the door, and said,
"Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said
By the fountain cool in the greenwood shade."
Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the
frog, whom she had quite forgotten; she was terribly frightened, and
shutting the door as fast as she could, came back to her seat. The king
her father asked her what had frightened her. "There is a nasty frog,"
said she, "at the door, who lifted my ball out of the spring this
morning: I promised him that he should live with me here, thinking that
he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door and
wants to come in!" While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the
door, and said,
"Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said
By the fountain cool in the greenwood shade."
The king said to the young princess, "As you have made a promise, you
must keep it; so go and let him in." She did so, and the frog hopped
into the room, and came up close to the table. "Pray lift me upon a
chair," said he to the princess, "and let me sit next to you." As soon
as she had done this, the frog said, "Put your plate closer to me that
I may eat out of it." This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he
could, he said, "Now I am tired; carry me upstairs and put me into your
little bed." And the princess took him up in her hand and put him upon
the pillow of her own little bed, where he slept all night long. As soon
as it was light he jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the
house. "Now," thought the princess, "he is gone, and I shall be troubled
with him no more."
But she was mistaken; for when night came again, she heard the same
tapping at the door, and when she opened it, the frog came in and slept
upon her pillow as before till the morning broke: and the third night he
did the same; but when the princess awoke on the following morning, she
was astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince gazing on
her with the most beautiful eyes that ever were seen, and standing at
the head of her bed.
He told her that he had been enchanted by a malicious fairy, who had
changed him into the form of a frog, in which he was fated to remain
till some princess should take him out of the spring and let him sleep
upon her bed for three nights. "You," said the prince, "have broken this
cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for but that you should go
with me into my father's kingdom, where I will marry you, and love you
as long as you live."
The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in giving her consent;
and as they spoke a splendid carriage drove up with eight beautiful
horses decked with plumes of feathers and golden harness, and behind
rode the prince's servant, the faithful Henry, who had bewailed the
misfortune of his dear master so long and bitterly that his heart had
well nigh burst. Then all set out full of joy for the prince's kingdom;
where they arrived safely, and lived happily a great many years.
[The end of _Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Frog-Prince_ by the Brothers Grimm]